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Comic Tutorials - PLEASE READ

8D!

How to make a SPRITE COMIC - by Davis PKMN Master

Alright, I owed someone some tips to make a comic so I’ll teach you to make something like Teh one Interveiws!
Right first we’ll need a background. We’ll start by making a panel!
Alright here’s a basic panel!
kay now to get a background!
You can make your own but we’ll use this one!
Now the background is bigger than the panel so let’s put the panel on the background!
right now erase over the edge over the background. So it looks like this!
now we need sprites!
We’ll use ToK……and Random!
Now look though the sprite sheets and find the poses that you want!
now drag one sprite there! Make sure the transparency button is on!
Now, white spaces will show through….use this colour instead of the white!
Right! Now let’s make speech bubbles!
Now when you type the message, your given a number of choices on how to your characters talk.
1. Avatar
These are good for pokemon overworld comics.
2. Tailed speech bubbles!
Color it in with the color mentioned above.
Letters like Q,q,e,R,o,O,p,P,a,A,D,d,g,b,B,4,6,8,9,and 0 have to be filled in too!
And 3. Coloured speech bubbles!
See 2 and make the colors resemble the character.
Right! There’s how to make a panel!
Do it a couple of more times and you have your comic!
Remember this is only a guide. Everyone does their comics different!
Alright, remember not to steal other people’s jokes. Make your own!
Spelling and Grammar never hurt either!
And try to cut down on the n00b talk and abbreviations!
ToK and the Backround are MINE! PM me if you want to use them!
and Random is Vaati's! The pannel and color you can use though!
Peace out!
Davis.

How to NOT make comics

Because of the mass amounts of journey comic's I have decided to help you people and show what is needed to be improved with them. I will also be showing, and updating this page with examples

1. The problem with starting a comic
For some reason everyone decides to start in the starting town with a starting trainer, or a recolor of him/her and let him start their quest. This is an exact copy of nearly every pokemon game, please be more original.

2. The text under panel problem
Many journey comics have text under the panels, which is a bad thing. If the maker of the comic decides to show two or more people in the comic at once the reader might get confused on which new person is which. Also we have the problem of the mysterious person, and if there is two mysterious people the author will have one named "Other ???", which makes it even more confusing.

3. Those big panels
Beco did this in his first few comics, all your panels really need to do is focus on the action, not on everything else. It is distracting and annoying.

4. Bad effects
Some journey comics use paint and just slap on a few pixels and call it an attack. Try to put some work into it, go to a sprite website and just take a sprite that resembles the attack. The sprite doesn't even have to be from a pokemon game!

5.Recoluring is not a good idea
Some comic's, just use recoloured sprites, even ones that are not journey comics. But either way try to edit them a bit. If you do not someone might actually say this about your comic. But if you don't even bother recoluring they expect your comic to end very fast.

6. Cameo's can be a bad thing
Sometimes cameo's can be a very bad thing. If you get too many you might get complaints from someone because their cameo hasn't been seen yet. Try to limit cameos and doesn’t give one to every person who gives your comic 5 stars.

7. We already know
This is a pokemon forum, we have all played a pokemon game here, and you don't need to tell us how it goes all over again. Try to do something more, surprising.

8. Those bad towns
Some people decide to make their own towns for there comic. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. If it doesn't look like it would be in a pokemon game make another town or use one from the game.

9. Overused Jokes
Many of us know the end to this joke, and I’ve seen in used quite often in journey comics due to the fact Nurse Joy frequently appears in the Pokemon Centers. Please do not do this you would not steal someone’s wallet, nor would you steals someone’s belongings so please do not steal someone’s creativity.

This will be updated, and if you have question about helping with your journey comic please ask here. If you want to submit a rule please PM me.

Attention all, I will be updating my journey guide in this post because I'd rather not bother MS, he has enough to do.

New updates:

10. Making the plot more interesting
Make your cast want to get the badges in their journey, most comic’s don’t do this which makes it quite annoying and boring. Pokechow’s Marin is a good example. Marin decides to go on her quest because her mother sold the fridge. So Marin goes of on her journey so she to get money so she won’t starve. Try to do something like this so the plot itself isn’t boring.

The original Gameboy was only black, white and grey, Pokemon yellow and G/S/C was 8-bit for GBC, the FR/LG and R/S/E games are 32 bit, a high leap in graphics. They look horrible when mixed, we have FR.LG maps if you want to use Kanto. There are also some people who are making Johto in FR.LG style, ask them if you can use their maps instead of the original games ones.

Call me a hypocrite if you will, but I would like to urge every single wannabe comic maker here not to EVER use an Author character in their comic.
Why? I'll give you a reason or two.

-It's very, very, very, very, very, cliche.

Since David Anez first included one in his comic Bob and George back in 2001, there have been thousands upon thousands of comics that use an Author character. The comic community (especially BnG forums) is absolutely sick of them. The thing is, the makers never tried to go anywhere with them. They just screamed, "Look at me! I can imitate Dave Anez! Yay!"

WP happens to be one who has used an Author character. But though HWWP (TC) started out a little shakily, WP managed to pull off some witty and original material. But be advised that trying to follow in his footsteps is not reccomended. It's original material that counts, which is what I'm stressing here.

-It's fourth wall abuse.

Having an Author character in your comic will inevitably lead to a continuously broken fourth wall, which is not neccesarily a good thing!

Like all jokes, the fourth wall breakage can get old if you're constantly making cracks about it. And combined with its clicheness, people are often going to just sit and stare.

Once again, let me urge each and every one of you amateur comikers to avoid using the author character, for the sake of your own humor. Thank you.

When I first came to SPPf, there were a handfull of comics around, but definetly the most prominent was HWWP (TC). This had inspired various other comics, many of them using Author characters. Now WP has himself as almost the main character, and the others were copying that.

So I thought, "I know! I'll be brilliantly original! I'll use an Author character, but I'll have him only interact with the cast sometimes!"

.......That was before I had ever heard of Bob and George, of course. And by the time I had found out where Authors originated, the MC character was firmly written into my plans.

So, am I annoyed for continuing a cliche? Yes. But do I regret it? No. I think I've come up with enough unique thoughts on Authors (though many I have not yet revealed to fans) to kind of scrape by. Do I think, that for the most part, comics are better without Authors than with them? Most definitely.

Once again, thank you ladies and gentlemen, and goodnight.

~MC

For various reasons, (not least because I've grown tired of this username), I've moved my operations over to other websites. If you're interested in following my adventures as I explore and subvert the many worlds of Nintendo through prose, look for me on Archive of Our Own, Bulbagarden, or OverClocked ReMix as "Daidalos."

And if you're a fan or a comic-maker from the old days, thanks for more than five unforgettable years of community, comics, and creativity. And thanks for remembering.

Here is something that I think would be useful. Don't make an introductory comic. If you have well established comic characters they will need no introduction, just make sure their names are mentioned and you'll be fine.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

Many experts will be more than happy to guide you through the course of making a comic, all it takes is just a little PM and then the experts will be helping you.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

Alright, I'm gonna say it right now, because I feel it needs to be said.

Age/Programs/Experience/etc. Are NO excuse for having a bad comic. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a comic title that said somthing like "_____ (Made in MS paint)" or "My first Comic (Don't be Harsh)" or that crap. You might expect Pity Sex; I'm going to give you a slap with the Swordfish of Reality and Critisizm.

Take a look at Chronicles of Hyrule. My comic. 80% of it was made in MS Paint, and It's gonna go pro in a couple of weeks. What does that tell you? Those Idiots who say that MS paint is their downfall are Downright Lazy.

Another interesting fact is that, when making the ORIGINAL CoH, The FIRST Rendition of it was crap. Downright crap. Did I say "Oh, well" and post it? No. I trashed it, opened up a new window, and tried again. Half of the people who post comics at SPPf don't do that. Guess what? These are ALSO the guys who cry when we say "This is utterly disgraceful crap." You want us to lick your shoes? Make your damn comic better than ours.

In short: If you know you made a crappy comic, Don't post it.
If you post it, Don't ask for Pity sex.
If you ask for Pity Sex, Don't whine when someone tears apart your comic.
If you whine at Crit, Get off the Internet.
Simple. =)

Here is something that ticks me off. When people steal other peoples jokes or steal there ideas. Blueguy did a Black Eye Peas joke and there have been two people who copied it. Cause when they do it, they get even worse criticism, its like stealing sprites.

On the whole sense of humor debate that Snagger brought up, I don't find those jokes funny. I mean I don't find it funny to see pokemon sprites doing that stuff. Its just stupid. The fact that people think it is funny is because its a bunch of n00bs who don't know what there talking about. I don't hate Blueguy's comic for it but he does use those jokes quite often.

People, do not underestimate the splendor of sprite editing. I was just browsing through pok&#233;sho and I was amazed. Even though I can't read Japanese their comics are of an amazing quality. That tells you something doesn't it? http://www.pokesho.com/anime_m1.html Take a look at those edits, don't come crying to me saying that you can't do anything like that because oh yes you can! All it takes is practice, so don't be lazy with sprites please; like I always say quality > quanity.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

Here is something that hasn't been posted. If you can take 'crit' seriously. If you want to improve in your comic you must take the advice other members are giving you. Sometimes, people call advice giving on comics flaming, and post something back that COULD cause a flamewar. And what Devil G said, don't start making excuses of you age, experience, etc. Even if you are new to comics, you must have a decent one. And if you can't take 'crit' seriously, then don't make one.

Here is something that hasn't been posted. If you can take 'crit' seriously. If you want to improve in your comic you must take the advice other members are giving you. Sometimes, people call advice giving on comics flaming, and post something back that COULD cause a flamewar. And what Devil G said, don't start making excuses of you age, experience, etc. Even if you are new to comics, you must have a decent one. And if you can't take 'crit' seriously, then don't make one.

I'm just going to point out that while a reviewer is perfectly allowed to present his/her criticisms and comments, he is absolutely NOT allowed, at least in my book, to present these viewpoints in a derogatory fashion. If what the reviewer had said to me was 'crit', as you call it, but it was posted in a malicious way, I would have every right to deem it as 'flaming'.

People are giving reviewers too much freedom. A reviewer has NO RIGHT to be rude. There's a fine line between the truth and pure cruelty, and many times reviewers have crossed it, causing these 'flamewars'.

The line between flaming and constructive criticism is different for each of us. If it does seem like flamebait or something like that and the person knows what they are talking about, you should listen to them regardless of the situation. Even on Deviantart if people tell me my art sucks I will listen to that to improve upon my own skill. it takes a lot of guts to do, but it strengthens you.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

"OH MY GOD THIS COMICS SUCKS YOU NEWB MAKE IT BETTER" is NOT Constructive Crit,(at least not by MY book)
"OH MY GOD THIS COMIC SUCKS YOU NEMB MAKE BETTER BACKROUNDS USE BETTER JOKES!" is also not Contructive Crit,
"This comic's Backrounds are poorly made and your Jokes need improovement," IS Contructive crit.
----

anyways I think that the exscuces are bad but don't be AS harsh, like...if its there 1st try say somthing like "not very good, but its a start", unless it is as bad as:
(taken from Crash and bass)

what not to do when making a comic:
do not think to strongly of your comics.
and do not make comics For the attention.

Way to feed into the furnace ;[

You need to have a high opinion of your work in order to take crit properly, if you think too low of your work you end up lacking in motivation. while it is true that one shouldn't think their comic is God, one should certainly have some form of self esteem ;[

What are you going to make comics and post them up for, aside from fun? You want to be noticed, so you therefore want attention, in posting a comic it tells the people visiting this forum you want their attention, hence, making and posting a comic is asking and making a comic for attention. ;[

As for how not to make a comic, I can't really think of something that isn't covered, but as a note to reviewers, try to refrain from the following;

-Judging a comic entirely based on one or two issues (Specifically the starting issues) is not the best way to go about things. Leave a comment to show how you think of the introduction, but remember that there is obviously going to be more to come, keep crit up to a maximum at the starting point and point of view over the entire comic at a minimum.

-Judge a comic based on author is something I see a lot, not nessecarily here, (well I do see it here... but nyah), but other places. Don't base an opinion of a comic that coincides with the opinion you have of the author. Unless it is obviously genuine. You can't hate the work just because the authors a moron, especially if the work is decent.

-Giving number ratings is possibly the thing that annoys me most. They are not informed unless you give off a set ranking system. I'm talking 4-5 key points that you judge, and then an average score based on the average of all previous scores. Something like this takes a lot of work, and overall doesn't help the author out. Remember, while you are reviewing, you are also helping the author receiving your crit. Your number rating don't help the author. ;[

The original Gameboy was only black, white and grey, Pokemon yellow and G/S/C was 8-bit for GBC, the FR/LG and R/S/E games are 32 bit, a high leap in graphics. They look horrible when mixed, we have FR.LG maps if you want to use Kanto. There are also some people who are making Johto in FR.LG style, ask them if you can use their maps instead of the original games ones.

"What will happen next?! Will blabla do blabla or will blablablablabla!"

-_-

I frigging hate it when people do this in their comics. This, in my book, is a MAJOR, MAJOR don't... Unless you have an original way to spin this, perhaps some sort of joke, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do it.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

You can make a comic with whatever you want. Drawn, sprited, it doesn't matter. Good luck!

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

You need a program that can blur in order to do that. GIMP can do that and it's free, just go to filters, and motion blur it. You need to fool around with the settings since I don't have that much practice in that.

Gone. I'm rather dissatisfied with how things have gone here. The staff and the users have exceeded my patience. You can still catch me on MSN, Smogon (as MythTrainerInfinity), or Shoddy Battle.DeviantArt Account

For various reasons, (not least because I've grown tired of this username), I've moved my operations over to other websites. If you're interested in following my adventures as I explore and subvert the many worlds of Nintendo through prose, look for me on Archive of Our Own, Bulbagarden, or OverClocked ReMix as "Daidalos."

And if you're a fan or a comic-maker from the old days, thanks for more than five unforgettable years of community, comics, and creativity. And thanks for remembering.